Brutal Game & A Funny Story

It's playoff season for soccer. We as coaches and a team mom decided on some rules for our playoffs. It would have been nice if they had abided by them, but I'm not going to talk about that now. Needless to say it was a brutal game and it's left a not so good taste in several of our players and parents mouths. We'll see what happens. If you look in the sidebar you'll see we lost.

However, while chatting with our resident COB (that's cranky old bastard for those who don't remember)I was reminded of a funny story.

We lived in our church's parsonage for a while. We had just moved in a few days before, we hadn't even gotten our big brave dog yet. You know our big brave dog, right? The one who hides behind me when jets go by overhead.

So here we are, in the middle of gang territory living in a house that's sat empty for the previous 18 months. Did I mention it was repeatedly broken into before we moved in?

It was late and we heard a noise outside. It was clearly someone jumping the fence and attempting to break into the house.

Music Man jumped out of bed, grabbed the closest weapon he could find, yelled at me to call 911 and went flying out the back door.

The kid who had been attempting to break in took off running, jumped the fence catching his foot in the process and screaming, "Oh shit!" as he landed on his face. I was on the phone with the police, who were sending a car right away. The very nice dispatcher nearly peed herself when I requested they not shoot the naked guy with the sword, cause he was my husband.

Apparently, gang members are terrified of naked, fat white men with Thai ceremonial swords screaming at them at night.


****Please don't try this at home. It's much better to let the police run naked through your neighborhood.

Okay, So We're Not Undefeated

Here is Miss Goofy blocking shots in the pregame practice:



Here is Coach Music Man's pregame pep talk:



Here is what was a spectacular save:



I won't put the pictures of Miss Goofy letting in 4 goals on the blog. Music Man and I worked with her a lot on Sunday. Hopefully it will help and we'll win our game this weekend. Especially since DolphinLady and TheWeatherGod will be here for the game. Root for the Blue Crush everyone!!

Our Last Soccer Match

Okay, I'm thinking I've jinxed the team by forgetting my camera two weeks in a row. So, the camera is totally going this week. Maybe I'll even remember to use it. We'll see.

Let's just say, this past week wasn't their best game. Especially for our goal keeper. She had some issues.

We also had two new players. One of them plays soccer for a club team (don't tell her coach), the other hates soccer. Or she did until she played on Saturday. She played very well and seemed to enjoy it a lot more.

This week our team plays the Sharks again, hopefully we'll be ready for them. And for the HERicanes the next week, when DolphinLady and TheWeatherGod are coming to down to see Miss Goofy play.

No pressure.

Just Outplayed

Our girls played hard this morning. We had a nine a.m. game. Hell, I thought nine a.m. on Saturdays had been canceled. Apparently not. I didn't take any pictures this week.

First let me say, most of our team was gone on Tuesday. Turns out they had the flu/cold/yucky crud making everyone in town sick. Whatever it hit Coach Music Man this week too. He could hardly speak on Tuesday. Then it hit Miss Goofy on Friday. She still went to Friday night practice and the game this morning.

Miss Goofy made some incredible saves. Including diving on the ball just like a pro. One of our girls who has really bad knees scored two goals. Unfortunately it just wasn't enough and we lost by 5.

Not because our team didn't play hard. They did. There are some things they need to work on, but they tried. Unfortunately, the HERicanes, are well, experienced. Their team has mostly older girls, so around 15, which for us is older. They also have girls that have played for a minimum of 3 years. All of them.

I thought these teams were supposed to be equally divided. Oh well. At least we know what to plan for when play them again. Next week's team is one that is young and inexperienced. I think the girls are looking forward to it. Not that we're guaranteed to win but I think they're feeling a little more confident of how they will do.

I'm just hoping they have fun. They seemed to, even in the midst of getting their butts handed to them this morning. If nothing else, they should be proud of their good effort.

First Game!!!

Okay so Music Man is coaching Miss Goofy's AYSO soccer team. Their first game was today. They won!!! Go Blue Crush!!!

Here is Music Man and Miss Goofy after the game:



I circled and labeled them. I'm really getting the hang of Microsoft Paint.

Here is Miss Goofy in some bizarre soccer ritual.




There would be more pictures, but I forgot I had the camera out. I'll try harder next time.

Oh and the final score was 5 to 1. So we're undefeated and tied for first place!

Hark! Are those Crickets I Hear?

Okay, so there's been a little problem with Miss Goofy playing soccer for AYSO this season. Namely, not enough girls in her division, which is either supposed to be U16 or U19. I'm not really sure which. I think it's 16 with the option to play up a level if they didn't have enough girls sign up.

The problem was they needed more girls. Why? Because the board here locally decided to split the upper division by gender. So we had a total of 18 girls signed up in the 16-19 division.

A call went out, "We need more girls!" As of today there were 21. This evening we went to a meeting with the other parents and girls, the Commissioner, the registrar, and the coach administrator. The topic? What should we do?

I was a little worried we were about to come home $85 richer. But we weren't, we actually had several options. One was form a single U19 division team and travel for most of the games. Not a good option since last year more than half the team decided not to travel. Option B was to create a fourth (they already had 3) U14 team. The downside there is the teams can't go to the regional playoffs. The commissioner has decided that if that's the option then we will have playoffs here and he will make sure we have an awards ceremony to go with it. Option C was a refund on the season.

Ultimately the parents decided on Option B. It does mean juggling the teams in the U14 division. It also means some girls will play down a level. But it seems like the best choice.

Then the commissioner, (a very nice man who signs his emails "the Commish") told us we also needed a coach and we need to find one tonight.

Does anyone else hear the crickets?

Music Man is the man you want to have at a meeting when you ask for volunteers. That's probably all I need to say about that but, I'd like to add that Music Man, while a wonderful dad and husband, an excellent trumpet player, a hard worker and all around great guy, has always been an American football fan. Not a British football fan. Good thing the AYSO has books on the game.

So, Miss Goofy will be playing soccer, Music Man will be coaching and I will be taking lots of pictures and probably a bunch of other stuff that I haven't even begun to contemplate. Wish us luck!